THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Ballan moves into Vuelta lead
Alessandro Ballan (Lampre) was close all season in races he was expected to win: third in Paris-Roubaix and second in Monte Paschi Eroica and GP Ouest France-Plouay.
With the 63rd Vuelta a España’s tackling its first summit finish, everyone expected the Spanish mountain goats to take over -- and no one expected Ballan.
But it was the classics head-banger who delivered the surprise victory through pouring rain and cold and snuck away with the leader’s jersey as an added bonus.
“I really can’t believe I won the stage and have taken the jersey,” said Ballan, who leads a grand tour for the first time in his career. “I rode today’s stage thinking about preparation for the world championships. On the second climb, the legs felt agile and I started to ride harder, but I still didn’t believe I would be able to fend off the favorites.”
Starting the seventh stage 13th at 2:30 back, Ballan was part of a five-man breakaway that peeled away from a hesitant peloton in the four-climb, 232.2km march into Andorra.
Ballan hit the base of the final climb with a head start of more than six minutes on the main pack and climbed alone through rain and cold to win for the first time all season.
The 28-year-old Italian made up for a season of close calls, winning the stage and taking the leader’s jersey as well as the best climber’s and combined jerseys.
“It wasn’t until the final three kilometers that I really believed it might be possible to win,” Ballan said. “Tomorrow is another hard day, so I cannot imagine I will be able to defend the jersey.”
Overnight leader Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) crossed the line 15th at 3:21 back and slipped to third at 1:21.
Favorites come alive
When Ballan dropped his fellow escapees for good on the second of two assaults up the Cat. 1 La Rabassa climb, the peloton seemed stuck in third gear.
The leaders were in no hurry to expend any unnecessary energy. It was easy to see why: Cold, rain, altitude, the Vuelta’s first of four summit finishes, a day after the first of two rest days and a winning breakaway all added up to a conservative pack.
The favorites finally turned up the heat in the final kilometers, with Alberto Contador (Astana) taking the initiative.
Carlos Sastre (CSC-Saxo Bank), Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Joaquin Rodriguez (Caisse d’Epargne) followed, with Levi Leipheimer (Astana) riding as the perfect teammate to mark the wheels.
Another sharp acceleration allowed Contador to finish third at 2:45 back and gap his chasers by five seconds, while Leipheimer trailed across fifth at 2:50 off the pace and moved into second place overall at 1:00 back.
“It’s not a lot of time, but the legs felt good and I wanted to try in the end,” Contador said. “No one moved until the end and then I tried something. It’s too bad that it was so cold and rainy today and that we couldn’t take something more out of this stage. The team rode great today.”
Under-rated climber Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) counter-punched his way to second in the stage at 2:42 back and slotted into eighth overall at 2:59 back.
“We had no idea what was happening in the stage. I didn’t know if I was going to win, if the break was caught, if I was going to take the jersey. We were completely lost in the fog,” Mosquera said. “But I went for it and I feel good. There are still a lot of days and there are some hard stages ahead of us, so we have no idea what’s going to happen in this race.”
Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) suffered what he described as a “terrible bonk” on the final climb, crossing the line 19th at 3:40 back and forfeiting 55 seconds to Contador.
“It was cold, altitude and raining, this is why I am arriving with the bonk,” said Valverde, who dipped behind Contador to fifth at 2:06 back. “I could tell I wasn’t going good. Considering how bad I felt, things didn’t go so bad. Hopefully I will be better tomorrow.”
Steady rain and cold made the Vuelta’s first of four summit finishes a miserable day at the office as the race entered its second week of racing.
With the breakaway building up a gap of more than 10 minutes at the first of two climbs up the Rabassa, the main pack seemed reluctant to break the cease-fire.
It wasn’t until the second and final hump that things started to liven up in the main pack.
With Ballan soloing toward victory, riders started to go away in flaring attacks, including Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi), David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne) and Paolo Bettini (Quick Step), but the favorites were watching each other until the final kilometers.
Sastre didn’t seem to be enjoying himself, yet dug deep as he always does and only lost five seconds to Contador. The 2008 Tour de France champ settled into sixth at 2:27 back.
Early breakaway
Some 45 riders from five teams – CSC, Ag2r, Caisse d’Epargne, Silence-Lotto and Gerolsteiner – got dragged out of bed early as the UCI “vampires” swooped down for pre-stage blood screenings. None was deemed “inapt.”
Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) was forced out after breaking a scaphoid bone in his right arm during a crash in Wednesday’s time trial. He left the Vuelta with his arm cast in plaster and will be sidelined for two weeks, an injury that also torpedoes his hopes of racing the world championships.
Just like about every day on the Vuelta, it didn’t take long for the attacks to come and the day’s main break to be set.
The flag barely dropped before Ballan went on the march. Marking his wheel were Xavier Zandio (Caisse d’Epargne), Iñigo Landaluze (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Gianni Meersman (FDJeux) and Marc De Maar (Rabobank).
“I just wanted to get in a good, hard day and luckily I made it into the right breakway,” Ballan said. “I never thought about winning the stage. I thought with such hard mountains and the favorites ready to attack that we didn’t stand a chance.”
At the base of the day’s first obstacle – the Cat. 2 Puerto de Montlobar at 64km – the gap grew to eight minutes and things started to look a little different. Cofidis put a few men on the front, but no one was really willing to bury themselves for the chase through steady rainfall and plummeting temperatures that dipped into the low 50s.
With less than 45km to go, the leading quartet hit the base of the first run up the Rabassa nursing a 10-minute lead.
Zandio got dropped early and Landaluze dangled 18 seconds off the back while the three leaders hit the top 6:26 ahead of the dwindling peloton.
Landaluze rejoined and attacked, but it was Ballan who surged away on the final rise up Rabassa to pull off the great escape.
Sunday’s stage
The 63rd Vuelta continues with the 151km, eighth stage from Andorra to Pla de Beret high in the Spanish Pyrénées.
The route hits the Cat. 1 Coll de Cantó at 41km and a second-category climb at 68km as the course pushes west across the valleys. The course pushes north and climbs the Cat. 1 Puerto de la Bonaigua (19.7km at 5.6 percent) at 132.7km. It’s a fast descent to the base of the Cat. 1 climb up the Alto Pla de Beret (6.2km at 6.4 percent).
The finish line flattens out in the final 2km and typically comes down to a small bunch sprint — if there’s still a small bunch left, that is.
Pla de Beret has been featured three times in the Vuelta. Jon Unzaga, Alex Zulle and Joaquím Rodríguez were winners in 1992, 1995 and 2003, respectively.
It will be interesting to see what kind of impact Saturday’s long stage of 232km and more than six hours of cold and rain will have on the peloton.
63rd Vuelta a España
● Stage 7: Barbastro to Andorra (Naturlandia-La Rabassa), 223.2km
● Winner: Alessandro Ballan (Lampre) won out of a five-man breakaway for the first time this season
● Leader: Ballan takes a 1:00 lead over Levi Leipheimer (Astana), overnight leader Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) fell to third at 1:21 back
● Points: Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) retained the lead with Ballan slotting into second
● KoM: Ballan takes the jersey away from Jesús Rosendo Prado (Andalucía-CajaSur), who wore since the second stage.
● Combined: Ballan leads ahead of Leipheimer
● Team: Astana stayed atop the team GC
● Peloton: Carlos Barredo (Quick Step), Nicolay Trusov (Tinkoff) didn’t start, Stef Clement (Bouygues Telecom) and Volodymyr Diudia (Milram) abandoned, 162 riders remain
